Ramps attachable to the rear of a truck are known in the art. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,979,867; 5,156,432; and 5,678,984, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Unfortunately, conventional ramps are not particularly well-adapted for enabling self-propelled power lawn mowers and the like to board trucks. Some conventional ramps are shaped undesirably, others are not strong enough, others may cause low hanging cutter decks of such mowers to scrape the ramp or truck, others may require multiple persons to operate, and others are inefficient.
It is apparent from the above that there exists a need in the art for a more efficient ramp structure for enabling self-propelled lawn mowers (e.g. see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,878,339 and 5,507,138, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference) to be driven into and off of a corresponding truck for transporting the same. There also exists a need in the art for such a ramp which also functions as the rear gate/door of such a truck.
It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill any and/or all of the above-described needs in the art, as well as other needs which will become apparent to the skilled artisan from the following detailed description of this invention.